liquefied natural gas

Shell is cutting back its plans for producing liquefied natural gas as a transportation fuel, canceling a liquefaction facility at its Jumping Pound plant in Alberta, and placing plans for Geismar, La. and Sarnia, Ont. – intended to serve the Great Lakes and Gulf Coast, respectively – on hold. updated March 25Read More >>

Clean air proponents in Pittsburgh – who note that “Steel City” is the second-biggest inland port in America – would like to see river traffic begin the transition to clean natural gas fuel, and are taking steps to convince local operators, authorities and fuel providers that such a move would be good business.Read More >>

The commercial Ice Breaker opens and closes for LNG fueling and disconnect using a double-handled scissor design, and allows vehicle fueling in about five minutes. Now JC Carter is preparing a 400-gallon-per-minite variant of the popular 50-gallon Ice Breaker nozzle.

Ice Breaker’s big brother is being designed primarily for marine applications – both the on-loading and off-loading of LNG cargo and the bunkering (fueling) of LNG-powered ships. It may also find use for quicker turnaround of LNG tanker trucks.

Sam Safi is nozzles product manager at JC Carter.

-------------------------------Contact information is only available to premium subscribers. Click here to purchase a subscription.

Clean Energy Will Front the Incremental Cost of Natural Gas TrucksAs Part of New Pact with Navistar for ‘Commercially Viable Solution’

Navistar and Clean Energy Fuels have launched “a comprehensive natural gas strategy” designed to bring more options to operators who will buy fuel from Clean Energy, including fuel from the firm’s vaunted new network of truck stop outlets. The program “will provide customers with a sustainable, commercially viable solution for adding natural gas powered trucks to their fleets,” Navistar says.Read More >>

There, in shirtsleeves in front of a Clean Energy Fuels LNG trailer, Obama said that the U.S. has 100 years’ worth of natural gas that could support more than 600,000 jobs by the end of the decade.Read More >>

Agility Fuel Systems, which is moving from vehicle retrofits to the supply of natural gas fuel system modules to OEM customers like Freightliner and Paccar’s Kenworth and Peterbilt, has moved into a new, 29,500-square-foot headquarters facility in Santa Ana, Calif.Read More >>

Kenworth and its parent Paccar, and Paccar’s PacLease unit, reminded the world about C.R. England’s fleet of LNG-fueled Kenworth T800 trucks in the wake of President Obama’s visit to UPS in Las Vegas last week.

“As the LNG infrastructure grows, C.R. England plans to expand its current California fleet and introduce these power units in other areas of the country,” PacLease said.

‘As the LNG infrastructure grows, C.R. England plans to expand its current California fleet and introduce these power units in other areas of the country,’ says Kenworth-PacLease, supplier of Westport Innovations-powered T800 tractors.

C.R. England deployed five of the liquefied natural gas trucks last year (F&F, May 30). They were supplied by Inland Kenworth, are based out of Ontario, Calif., and ply routes similar to those used by UPS: Los Angeles to Salt Lake City.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries has designed a 1,010-foot, LNG-capable container ship with insulated prismatic tanks (nearly 1.85 million gallons capacity) providing more cargo space. A ‘unique’ insulation system reduces boil-off, says DNV, which has approved the design.

Norway’s DNV continues at the center of liquefied natural gas as a marine fuel, agreeing to evaluate LNG ship-fueling possibilities at three Belgian ports, and approving the design of a dual fuel container ship with a new type of LNG tank design for Kawasaki Heavy Industries.

“Hazard identification and quantitative risk analysis are key components of DNV’s service and this scope of work covers not only people at the port but the wider community and natural environment,” states a release. The study was commissioned by the Belgium’s Flemish government. DNV said the Flemish port authorities were “optimistic about the potential for safe and efficient LNG bunkering operations.”

Belgium’s Port of Zeebrugge already handles the cargoes of some of the world’s largest LNG tankers — why not bunker LNG too?

Both LNG and diesel oil fuel tanks are located under the ship’s forward superstructure, further minimizing the loss of cargo space.

KHI has obtained DNV approval in principle for both the gas supply system of the vessel and the LNG fuel tanks. Next comes a safety assessment of the vessel with DNV.

Design criteria for LNG ships are being studied by the International Maritime Association’s Bulk Liquids and Gases unit (IMO BLG), DNV notes, adding, “The location of LNG tanks under the accommodation has been a subject for discussion in the industry. DNV plays an active role in these discussions.”

DNV notes that the KHI ship’s electronically controlled two-stroke dual-fuel main engine may be equipped with an exhaust gas recirculation system (EGR) to satisfy IMO Tier-3 requirements for North American and European ECAs – Emission Control Areas.

‘The uptake of new technologies is a balance between risk and business need,’ said DNV COO Tor Svensen.

DNV continues to emphasize its LNG commitment and the seriousness of a maritime shift to LNG.

“It is important to understand the environmental imperatives that shipowners face, but it is also important to recognize that, in reality, the uptake of new technologies is a balance between risk and business need,” COO Tor Svensen said in a release. “Together, DNV and KHI have struck just the right balance with this vessel.”

LNG is seen as a cleaner replacement for oil, and according to DNV is “proving to be an economically favorable emissions reduction solution for shipowners.

“Decoupled from oil prices due to sources such as shale gas, [LNG] is expected to remain competitive for the lifetime of new vessels entering the market,” DNV says. “25 ships in Norway are already floating evidence of LNG’s safety and technical feasibility, and DNV has had rules in place for over 10 years.”

DNV says it’s demonstrated the feasibility of a range of large LNG ships through such concept studies as the container ship Quantum 9000; Triality, a VLCC size oil tanker; and two different sized bulk carriers.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries has designed a 1,010-foot, LNG-capable container ship.

In November, a DNV official said at a conference in China that some 500 LNG ships would be on order by 2015 and several thousands by 2020 (F&F, December 12).

-------------------------------Contact information is only available to premium subscribers. Click here to purchase a subscription.

Fossil fuels will continue to dominate the world energy picture through the next two decades, with renewables the big winner among the alternatives, and technological advances curbing the energy thirst of the transportation sector, says BP’s just-published Energy Outlook 2030.Read More >>

Massachusetts Democrat Ed Markey wants the U.S. Department of Energy to justify liquefied natural gas exports, citing data that one already approved and seven pending LNG business schemes could result in exports equaling 18% of current U.S. usage.Read More >>

“We don’t do dual fuel,” says a spokesman as Rolls-Royce late last week reported a contract to deliver engines and azimuth propulsion systems for two liquefied natural gas-fueled tugboats, said to be the world’s first.Read More >>

“These barriers currently inhibit investment decisions by vehicle and equipment manufacturers as well as LNG truck purchase decisions. Removing these barriers would result in more heavy-duty NGVs on the road, reducing petroleum dependence and GHG emissions.”

The agency wants to minimize the likelihood of vapor release during LNG vehicle fueling, and tackle “station-vehicle interface issues that affect station design or operation.”

Dillon Transport is placing ten more LNG-fueled Peterbilt 384 tractors in Owens Corning service, this time in Lodi, Ohio (west of Akron) and is looking at 20 more natiral gas trucks for Tampa, possibly to be fueled by CNG.

Chicago-based Dillon Transport has taken delivery of ten more liquefied natural gas-fueled Peterbilt 384 tractors and will place them in service for Owens Corning in Lodi, Ohio next month.

The Ohio trucks are identical, says Dillon marketing and business development manager Phil Crofts: spec’d via Rush Truck Centers in Los Angeles and upfitted for LNG in Irving, Texas, they have 8.9-liter ISL G engines by Cummins Westport and liquefied natural gas tank assemblies by Agility Fuel Systems using a single HLNG-150 fuel tank by Chart (F&F, March 28).

CNG for Tampa?

“They will be working hard,” Crofts says. “The formula is to put as many miles as we can on them to get the payback on fuel.”

For Clean Energy, the formula is to enlist big-name companies like Owens Corning to get logistical providers like Dillon to use natural gas.

Dillon’s next natural gas deployment is likely to be 20 trucks for Tampa. There, however, the firm may opt for compressed natural gas, Crofts told F&F.

Dillon’s fleet of some 280 tractors and more than 400 trailers serves 25 states and Canada.

The last coal-fired steamship in U.S. operation may be converted to natural gas, says the Great Lakes Maritime Research Institute, part of an initiative with the U.S. DoT’s Maritime Administration unit.

GLMRI has a new five-year pact with MARAD to address environmental issues facing shipping. MARAD wants attention paid the first year to the conversion of steam ships to liquefied natural gas or compressed natural gas fuel, GLMRI says. Both vessel conversion and infrastructure issues will be examined, notably “the LNG supply chain needed to support the fuel demand for the fleet with the potential for this fuel to be used by other modes of transportation.”

February Conference in Cleveland

The lead candidate for conversion is the S.S. Badger. The 410-foot ferry entered service in 1953, GLMRI says, “designed specifically to handle the rough conditions that it would likely encounter during year-round sailing on Lake Michigan.” It is the only coal-fired steamship in operation in the U.S., sailing daily between Manitowoc, Wisc. and Ludington, Mich. from mid-May through mid-October. GLMRI is working with the Lake Michigan Carferry Service and marine engineers to gauge the feasibility of converting the S.S. Badger to CNG or LNG, examining fuel consumption, routes, and shore fueling infrastructure issues.

The demonstration project will also consider training needs and shipyard implications of the power conversions, GLMRI says, noting that “Converting the vessel to natural gas as a primary fuel could have the potential to make the S.S. Badger one of the greenest vessels operating on the Great Lakes.”

GLMRI and the Great Lakes and Rivers Section of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers are planning multi-day education and information transfer sessions in Cleveland in February, bringing in academic, industry and government expertise from the U.S., Europe and Canada to discuss natural gas fueling for Great Lakes ships. Sessions are being planned in conjunction with the Great Lakes Waterways Conference being held February 22-23at Cleveland’s Hyatt Regency at the Arcade.